FRAT PIN GAVE HIM PRIDE AND PURPOSE
Kwentong Tabets No. 31 (Complete)
By Brod Bebong Arreza 82 DLSU-AUF
25 November 2023
“I will my wear my Fraternity pin knowing that it represents all that is good and noble in man” is a line in our Credo we seldom recite, and wear our pin we no longer often do, except on rare occasions.
But for Brod Pikoy Cascolan, the Beta Sigma pin was part of his official uniform as PNP Chief.
Examine photos of him, and you will notice that below the array of ribbons and medals is our red-and-green Book of Knowledge emblem, purposedly placed on his left chest, so it can touch the beating heart of a brave man.
And there are many resibos showing that our Fraternity pin was indeed part of his official wear, be it a “white duck” regalia or a full dress blue or a type A work clothes of cops.
Take for example the 200-page “The People’s Chief”, which sums up his 38 years of service, the PNP published on his retirement day in November 2020.
Spread throughout that memorabilia are 47 photos of him wearing the Beta Sigma pin.
In fact, from the official cover – of a smiling Brod Pikoy resplendent in full dress blue – you can already see the pin on its assigned place.
All the while we thought that Brod Pikoy wore his pin only on the bookends of his term as the 24th chief of the PNP : when he assumed office and when he retired.
But in between, the pin was in fact a fixture of his official OOTD.
He wore it during ceremonies and command conferences, in visits to regions and meetings with VIPs, when receiving instructions from the President and when barking orders to his men.
Like any Beta Sigman, the pin was said to have provided him pride and purpose during his watch when the pandemic at its fiercest put us all in peril.
When asked to explain the pin’s exalted place, he replied that he owed all the 200 medals and awards he earned in service to the symbol of the fraternity which first gave him the courage to commit acts of valor.
“Of all the medals you see on my chest, the Beta Sigma pin is the hardest to earn, and harder to keep,” he once told a group of brods who called on him in his Camp Crame office.
“Yung isa dyan badge ko bilang pulis. Yung sa Tabets, yan ang badge of honor, “ he proudly explained to the brods.
If stories are to be believed, he also embraced frat seals and pins as good luck charms or amulets.
As a young lieutenant fresh out of the Academy and thrown to the frontlines in Maguindanao in 1986, he was said to have stitched with his own hand the embroidered seal of the frat to his backpack, “for good luck and courage.”
And wherever he was assigned, he made it a point to bring with him Malmon shirts.
“Kasi yung siga na mukha ni Malmon parang war paint. Pag suot mo tumatapang ka, “ he narrated during one jug with brods.
And perhaps frat souvenirs might have worked like a talisman to the Baguio kid who once dreamed of becoming a priest.
In 1986, as a platoon leader of a PC Special Action Company, he seized a cache of 110 high powered guns from armed groups in Malabang, Lanao del Sur.
ln 1998, as C.O. of the 3rdIloilo Provincial Mobile Group, he led what the press dubbed as a six-day war to neutralize bandits who robbed and killed 10 bus passengers, including US Peace Corps man John Brock, in Sara, Iloilo.
But we all know that good policing is not all about breaking down doors as films love to depict. It also requires extending a hand across social divisions, barriers and cracks.
And in the said PNP-published memorabilia are stories of how Brod Picoy did it many times, not to pull a stunt, but out of a deeper recognition that police response to problems may only treat the symptoms but not the cause.
So when hungry turned angry farmers blockaded the national highway in Compostela Valley because aid for victims of supertyphoon Pablo has not reached them, Brod Pikoy, the provincial director, dispersed them – with bags of rice and not with batons or bullets.
When a mammoth throng of laborers marched to Mendiola for better pay, the now NCRPO chief broke away from the police phalanx, and met the marchers head on – and into the warm embrace of his fellow UP Baguio brod and contemporary Jun Sta Barbara, UPB ’80.
What he posted in his FB afterward was reprinted in the memorabilia, the photo of the merry reunion of two UPB Tabets occupying a one whole page, and in big fonts his brave declaration :
“ I have spent more than enough time in the field to understand and live the adage that no person hates conflict more than the police. In the fields we go everyone, knowing very well that those we oppose fight for the same country and the same ideals we do. We must know how to win wars. We must learn now to win the peace. 38 years have passed since we raised the same banner – the Kabataang Makabayan, and unknown to many we are comrades and brothers.”
So in the time of loathsome tokhang and lethal red-tagging, here was a ranking police general flaunting his radical past.
In fact in the same memorabilia, he did not hide his activist creds, on the contrary taking pride of his involvement in progressive causes, including acting in nationalist plays while in college.
And if there is one association he was mightily proud of, bar none, it was his being a Beta Sigman
As a brod who had read it observed : “Sa totoo lang, sa 200 pages na libro na “The People’s Chief” mas maraming pahina ang iniukol sa Beta Sigma kesa kay Pangulong Duterte.
True enough, there were no pictures with politicians but it was groupfie galore with Beta Sigmans.
In his farewell message, he thanked his brothers in Beta Sigma. In his condensed biography, the Fraternity is highlighted there. Pati nga pagiging Betan Elite, nabanggit.
There is one section dedicated to Beta Sigma.
And the pages devoted to his humanitarian work were about his participation in Beta Sigma outreach – giving relief goods to Taal Volcano eruption victims with the Batangas Assembly; school supplies distribution in Taguig with the Manila South Assembly members; his birthday treat to wards of a Bulacan orphanage with UP brods.
And if there is one photo that captures his immense pride as a Beta Sigman it is of him tightly hugging a Malmon statuette on the night UP Beta Sigma conferred on him its distinguish alumnus award.
He turned a book honoring him into his homage to the fraternity he loved.
Brod Pikoy upheld the finest traditions of the Fraternity and carried the burden that comes with its membership.
To him, his pin was no fashion accessory made of “tin, alloy and gold” but a moral compass, a constant reminder that “my actions must never stray in a direction that will cast dishonor upon the name of my Fraternity, defy its traditions, nor lower the tone of its dignity.”
By adhering to this cornerstone doctrine of ours throughout his life , he gave the world a picture of what a Beta Sigman should be, and in turn, gave each one of us tremendous pride.
Rest well, true Beta Sigman and loyal servant of the people. (END)
